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Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
(known professionally as Columbia Pictures and Columbia, and formerly
CBC Film Sales Corporation) is an American film studio,
production company and film distributor that is a member
of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group,
a division of Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures subsidiary
of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.

The studio was founded in 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales
by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Jack's best friend Joe Brandt,
released its first feature film in August 1922.
It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924,
and went public two years later. Its name is derived from "Columbia"
a national personification of the United States, which is used as the studio's logo.

In its early years, it was a minor player in Hollywood, but began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the primary homes of the screwball comedy.

In the 1930s, Columbia's major contract stars were Jean Arthur and Cary Grant.
In the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studio's premier star and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden also became major stars at the studio.

In 1982, the studio was purchased by The Coca-Cola Company,
and launched TriStar Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS
Five years later, Coca-Cola spun off Columbia, which was sold to Tri-Star,
as the latter became Columbia Pictures Entertainment.
After a brief period of independence with Coca-Cola maintaining
a financial interest, the combined studio was acquired by Sony in 1989

It is one of the leading film studios in the world, and is a member
of the "Big Six" major American film studios.
It was one of the so-called "Little Three" among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

At the time Duke joining Columbia was considered a good career move,
however that was not to be, with Duke experiencing one
of the most depressing and torrid times of his life.
With each and next Columbia film he made,
he found himself reduced to humiliating roles,
relegated down the cast list, into bit parts!

Taken from Duke:- The Life and Image of John Wayne
The story to how this happened,
is that a prop man, told Harry Cohn,
that Duke was having an affair with a Columbia actress
a favourite of the studio head!
As a result Duke's bit parts at the studio
were drastically diminished, so much so ,
he was on Cohn's 'S*** list,
As a result, Duke was treated as something best swept in the gutter!

So much so in the movie The Deceiver he plays a CORPSE!!!.
as a stand-in for the body of Ian Keith, who is murdered in the film's plot.
By doing so, Cohn let the actor know where
he stood in Columbia's pecking order,
No lines, No movement- Just dead!!

It was major humiliation for a young actor,
who not long before was the star of The Big Trail!

In Maker of Men,
although Duke had started off in in the movie
in the starring role, he was now being gradually relegated.
If Cohn was scripting the film,
it would have been a humiliating farewell.
Duke played Dusty, a worthless college football player,
willing to sell out his team for a few pieces of silver.
During his career, in his mind,
he was to never play such an objectionable role again!

He was soon to fall out with, Harry Cohn, the Columbia boss,
who thought so badly of Duke.
It was the end of the line for Duke's Columbia career,
and It was not until, the Lone Star movies, was he able
to recover.

Best WishesKeithLondon- England

The post was edited 5 times, last by ethanedwards (Oct 2nd 2010, 6:03am).

Re: Duke's Movie Studios- Columbia

There is much, MUCH more to the intense
loathing JW had for Harry Cohn...I'll pull some stuff from my archives to post about it, but suffice to say that JW felt no love for Cohn, because Cohn tried to "black ball" JW out of the business over false info that was given to him (Cohn) in the first place - according to the sources I've read.
Anyway, I'll find the stuff I have and post it.